Publication Order of Sabbat Worlds Crusade Books

Gaunt’s Ghosts is a series of military science fiction novels written by the bestselling British author of short stories,
sci-fi, comics and graphics novels, Dan Abnett. The series is set in Warhammer 40,000 universe and spans fifteen books.

The series features the main character, Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt, one of the few lucky political commissars of the Imperial Guard to be awarded command of a regiment. Even though Gaunt is the main character, the perspective from which the series is narrated continually changes to accommodate a broader view of events. The series also alludes other books by Dan Abnett such as Ravenor and Eisenhorn and this has resulted in three spin-off works.

Gaunt’s Ghosts started off as a continuing set of loosely connected short stories in the Inferno Magazine issues 4, 8, and 30. The series follows the exploitations of Ibram Gaunt, a Colonel-Commissar and his regiment of recon specialists and scouts, as they serve alongside in the Sabbat Worlds Crusade. They often battle against the evil forces of Chaos even though they sometimes fight the orks on the land of Typhon Eight. Up until the sixth novel, the ghosts are majorly pitted against the heretical rebel’s armies. By the last pages of Only in Death, it is revealed that the ghosts have been serving in the crusade for over a decade.

Each novel in Gaunt’s Ghosts series starts off with an extract from a book titled, A History of the Later Imperial Crusades, which summarizes the situation in which the Ghosts have been deployed. The excerpts are often written in the past tense implies that the author wrote them after the Sabbat Worlds Crusade comes to an end.

First and Only

First
and Only is the first book in Gaunt’s Ghosts series. Generally, like many novels opening a series, this book is about setting the tone of the entire series: who are these Gaunt’s Ghosts, where do they come from, who is Gaunt. This is a brilliant series opener that revolves around Ibram Gaunt and his regiment of Imperial Guard known as Gaunt’s Ghosts.

Gaunt is politician known as a commissar and also commands his battlefield regiment at the rank of colonel. The story kicks off with a patrol of warships trying to retrieve a Vermillion level communication from the void. Generally, it is required that an astropath has to filter out the signal, retrieve it and decode it. Somehow this signal finds itself in Gaunt’s hands through a date crystal. In between this, Gaunt and his regiment have to battle a war on Fortis Binary and then onto Menazoid Epsilon.

Gaunt is a rare monster in Warhammer 40K, he is both likable and at times detestable. Which is somehow ironic as the primary focus of the story revolves around the inter-regimental battle between Gaunt’s Ghosts and the regiment controlled by Flense.

Gaunt is a real leader, he inspires and makes his followers aspire to be just like him. He cares a lot about his men and does not water lives anyhow unlike Imperial Guard commander who essentially sends them in a “meat grinder” through a battler of attrition. First and Only is an enjoyable story with endless conflicts and space travel.

Ghostmaker

The liberation crusade continues to push its way to the Sabbat Worlds pushing the warriors of Chaos on every single front. The Tanith First and the Only are sent to Monthax, a world that reminds the Tanith warriors of their lost homeland. The Tanith’s are described as dark haired, pale skinned, with a lilting and sing-song accent, and most of the Tanith men are tattooed with blue ink.

Ghostmaker, book two in Gaunt’s Ghost series, is an exciting read with a strange and unique structure. The first two-thirds of the book consists of short stories that narrate flashbacks to the critical moments of the individual soldiers within Tanith First and also the entire unit from Ibram Gaunt in the hierarchical structure.

The short stories are diverse in nature and their narration, but they are all good, mixing humor, tragedy, and action with fascinating character development.

Several essential Ghost characters were featured in the first book in the series, but the author is able to describe several other interesting details, giving readers an insight to the exciting backstory that illuminates the action in this installment as well as other books in the series. Abnett also makes greater use of the Warhammer 40,000 universe tossing in some appearances of Eldar and Orcs to spice up the story.

The last third of the Ghostmaker story is a more traditional war narration as Tanith First battles against the Chaos forces on Monthax. It’s a solid tale with good writing.

In particular, the author chooses the Imperial Guard to team up with an alien combat group to defend himself against a larger enemy, a trope that several Warhammer 40,000 writers use when needed despite the fact that the association with an alien in the WH40K universe is considered heresy in all circumstances.

Just like its predecessor, Ghostmaker is a collection of short stories that are spread around the main plot of the Imperial invasion. Each short story serves as a quick re-introduction of some of the best men in Gaunt’s regiment mainly focusing on their combat skills and their relationships with the commanding officer. About half of the stories in the novel are based out in quick flashbacks of combat, action, and adventure, and after the main novel narrative picks up, the Imperial Army is commanded to advance into the jungle and fight the ruthless forces of Chaos.

Also just like First and Only, Ghostmaker is a thrilling no-nonsense space war novel with lots of carnage and action and the story only brief interludes showcasing how soldiers spend their free time between demanding missions. One of Dan Abnett’s strengths when it comes to novel writing lies on character building, Ghostmaker is a brilliant example, as the author works through different characters from Gaunt’s Ghosts and vividly explains their history, opinions and the feelings on the loss of Tanith. If you like science-fiction stories set in space, then Gaunt’s Ghost
by Dan Abnett is a brilliant match for you.

Thriller Master Harlan Coben is back! The man of a thousand twists is back with his latest edge of the seat thriller. A perfect family has lost their daughter to drugs and an abusive boyfriend. The parent sees her in Central Park one day and approaches her. However she runs, and she's clearly in trouble. Of course if you're a Coben fan you don't even need a description - you know this book is going to be good. More Details.

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Featured Author

It’s always exciting when an author starts a new series, and romantic suspense author of the Daniel Vartanian trilogy Karen Rose has started a new series recently. It’s called the Sacramento series and begins with Say You’re Sorry. Karen is our author of the month! Check out our Karen Rose page.

Did You Know…

Anne McCaffrey was the first woman to win a Hugo Award for fiction and the first to win a Nebula Award. Her 1978 novel The White Dragon became one of the first science-fiction books to appear on the New York Times Best Seller list.